Jacob, age 92. and Rebecca, age 89, both lost their first spouses to death, and they met each other and decided to get married. They are excited about their decision to get married. They go for a stroll to discuss the wedding and on the way they pass a drugstore. Jacob suggests they go in.

Jacob addresses the man behind the counter: “Are you the owner?”

The pharmacist answers “Yes”.

Jacob: “We’re about to get married. Do you sell heart medication?”

Pharmacist: “Of course we do.

Jacob: “How about medicine for circulation?

Pharmacist: “All kinds.”

Jacob: “Medicine for rheumatism, scoliosis? ”

Pharmacist: “Definitely.”

Jacob: “How about Viagra?”

Pharmacist: “Of course.”

Jacob: “Medicine for memory problems, arthritis, Jaundice?”

Pharmacist: “Yes, a large variety. The works.”

Jacob: “What about vitamins, sleeping pills, Geritol, antidotes for Parkinson’s disease?”

Pharmacist: “Absolutely.”

Jacob: “You sell wheelchairs and walkers?”

Pharmacist: “All speeds and sizes.”

Jacob says to the pharmacist:

“We’d like to use this store as our Bridal Registry”!

Sin is powerful; sin is pervasive; it has permeated the universe. One of the things that it does is wear us out. How many of you get tired, weary, worn out? It seems like the longer you live in this world, the more tired and weary you get, doesn’t it?

What would life be if you were a slave, and had to work hard every day, week after week, year after year, with no break, until you died? Such a life would be terrible, wouldn’t it? And, sadly, there still are slaves in this world, even now.

You see, when Adam and Eve sinned, their rebellion against the Melech Olam – the King of the universe, their disobedience to the All-Wise God, their treachery against the good Lord, ruined not only themselves, and all their descendants, but the entire universe. A curse fell not only upon humanity, but also upon the ground, and all of nature. Nature functions very differently now than the way it did before the Fall.

Sin has impacted not only humanity, each one of us – body, soul and spirit; mind, will and heart, but all of creation – the plants, the animals, the weather, the Earth itself, and beyond – the galaxies and the universe. I once saw a photograph of two galaxies crashing into each other.

This is exactly what the Word of God tells us: the entire created universe was subjected to futility and frustration, and slavery to corruption and decay. Life is no longer pleasant and easy, as it was at first in the Garden of Eden. Now, we have to work hard, toil, sweat, fight weeds and thorns and thistles, in order to eat our daily bread.

Will it always be like this? Will we always have to work hard, strive, get tired and weary and worn out? Is there no return to the Beginning, to the glorious days of Eden? Is there no peace? Is there no rest for the weary? The Word of God says yes! Things will change! And the Jewish holidays and God’s calendar give us hints and promises that they will!

Last week we considered the Sabbath and the seven annual holy days. Every seventh day, beginning Friday night at sunset and continuing through Saturday night at sunset, is to be set aside for rest – physical and spiritual rest.

The Sabbath reminds us that our great Creator God created the universe in six literal days, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. If the Almighty rested, and was refreshed, shouldn’t we? We all need to rest. Some of us are so busy – too busy, and we need to simply set apart a day, and what better day than God’s Sabbath, and rest, and get refreshed, and renewed, and revitalized! Are you resting physically?

“But Rabbi Loren, I have so much work to do. And, I need to work to provide for my family.” Trust God, and rest, and He will provide, just as He provided a double portion of manna on the sixth day while we were in the wilderness.

The Sabbath also reminds us of our need for spiritual rest. It wasn’t until the Jewish people were delivered out of Egypt that we began observing the Sabbath. The Sabbath also reminds us of the salvation provided by our wonderful Messiah, the “Lord of the Sabbath” who alone is able to give rest to the human soul, as He promised when He said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29).

My brothers and sisters, the key to salvation and victorious living is resting in God, resting in the Messiah, trusting that God and Messiah have worked on our behalf to save us! We can’t work our way into Heaven – that’s impossible! We can only rest our way into that glorious reality! We rest, trusting that God and Messiah have done the work of salvation for us!

Have you learned how to rest by trusting in Messiah? Have you learned how to rest in Him on a continual basis, believing in Him, seeking Him, waiting on Him, so that you discover what He wants you to do? Have you learned the secret of being still, and knowing that the Lord is God? Of resting and being still, so that you can hear God’s still, small, quiet voice speaking to you?

Then, there are the seven annual holidays, which year by year they pace our lives according to the cycle God has designed into creation. They remind us of the great things God has done in Israel’s history. In addition, each holiday is a prophecy which looks forward to what God is going to do in human history. These holidays reveal God’s master plan to save humanity through the Messiah. They point us to the Person and Work of the Son of God. The seven yearly holidays, which are completed in the seventh month – the month of completion.

That brings us to Shemittah: The Seventh, Sabbatical Year

Not only do people need various times of rest, but so does the Holy Land. For six years we are allowed to sow seed, and reap our crops, but not on the seventh year. We could eat what grew on its own, but sowing crops and reaping them during the seventh year must cease. The land needs to be refreshed, the soil needs to be renewed. God is concerned about His special, holy land, and it too must rest.

Isn’t it interesting how the Word of God, in its wisdom, 3500 years ago, informed the Jewish people about this important agricultural principle, that our land need to rest, the soil needed to be renewed, so that it wouldn’t get exhausted?

“I don’t know about that Rabbi Loren. Not sowing and harvesting, and only eating those crops that grew by themselves, for a whole year? A family could lose income. They could suffer.” No if Israel was faithful, and we trusted in God, that He would provide, just as He promised that He would order an extra blessing for the sixth year, that would provide for the Shemittah year, the seventh year, until the new harvest came in. Don’t you trust that He will provide for you, and your family, if you order your life the way He has commanded?

And, what do you suppose that we were to do with that extra time during that year that we didn’t sow our crop? Seek God more, study, pray, mediate on Him and His Word; maybe do something good for others around us.

Shanat Yovel: The Year of Jubilee

Furthermore, at the completion of every seven times seven years, there was a greater cycle of completion and rest. After every forty-nine years an extra year of rest was added, called the “Shanat Yovel” – the “Year of Jubilee.” Yovel comes from a Hebrew root means a joyful sound, associated with the sound of a trumpet. Again, for a second year, there was no sowing, and no reaping. But God promised that He would provide enough so that the people would not grow hungry.

This special year was to be made holy, sanctified, set apart to accomplish special purposes. On Yom Kippur, in the seventh month, on the day to make atonement, a shofar was blown, proclaiming d’ror – liberty, freedom, release from economic and social hardship. Every family that had to sell the family property had it restored to them. Property was to be restored to its original owners, those sold into slavery were to be released, the land of Israel was to have an extra year of rest, and the entire nation of Israel returned to a state of equilibrium.

The land of Israel was never to be permanently sold – only leased. You see, if a family that owned a piece of property in Eretz Yisrael came upon hard times, and had to sell their property, its value was determined by how many years it was to the Year of Jubilee. If Shanat Yovel was ten years away, its value was worth ten harvests. If Shanat Yovel was 30 years away, it was worth 30 harvests. Basically, you leased the land, and were entitled to the crops for those amount of years – but you didn’t actually buy the Land itself.

This would prevent the rich from getting too rich, and accumulating all the Land of Israel, and the rich take over too much of the land, and become too desperately rich, and the poor become too desperately poor. What a great economic/social system!

We couldn’t buy up the land of Israel, because the Land itself belonged to God. He is the Owner of the Land of Israel. It’s His. It belongs to Him. It’s His to give. And in His goodness He leased it out to the various families of Israel, and it was never to be permanently sold.

“The Land is Mine” declares the Lord. And, may I suggest that we should view everything that way? “Your life is Mine. Your money is Mine. Your wife, your husband, your sons, your daughters, are Mine. Your job is Mine. Your time, your energy, your abilities, are Mine. You, and everything your have, everything you are, belong to Me. Therefore, won’t you serve Me?”

If a Jewish man became poor, and needed to sell his property, then it was the responsibility of his nearest relative to buy back what had been lost.

But Rabbi Loren, are you telling me that I am my brother’s keeper? Don’t I have a right to keep my hard-earned money for myself? You’re telling me that I need to use my money, not to make my life easier, but to take of the life of my relative, who I may not even like? That’s right!

If a man had to sell his home that was within a walled city (and a wall is what made a city a city), then he only had a year to come up with the money to buy back his house, and the seller was required to sell it to him. After the year, in a more urban environment, the purchaser could keep the home. It did not return to the original owner in the Year of Jubilee. Houses in villages that didn’t have walls were considered to be like open fields, and so they returned to their sellers in the Year of Jubilee.

That did not hold true in the case of the Levites, since they did not own landed property like the rest of Israel, and their homes in their cities were their permanent possessions.

Now, if a Jewish man became poor, we were to take care of him. We were to loan him money, but not take interest from him. He was to receive a free loan that he was to repay over time. The Jewish community has followed this command, and most Jewish communities have Free Loan associations, where you can get a loan at no interest.

In our world today, richer nations take advantage of poorer nations, loaning them money. What has happened all too often is that the poorer nation gets deeper and deeper into debt, until the poorer nation becomes an economic slave of the richer nation. There is a movement to forgive the debt of poorer, Third World nations, and I think it’s a good idea. Like there was in Israel, there should be a time limit to debt.

If a Jewish man became so poor that he had to sell himself to get money, or pay off his debts, we were not to treat him harshly. He was to be treated like an honored employee, not like a slave. And, he and his sons were to be released in the Year of Jubilee, and return to their own property.

If a Jewish man became so poor that he had to sell himself, and he sold himself to a non-Jew living in our land, then he had the right to redeem himself, to buy back his freedom, if he could come up with the money; and, his relatives also had the right to redeem him and free him. If he was unable to be redeemed, then he was automatically set free during the Year of Jubilee.

I am reminded of the One who became our Relative, so that He could redeem us. The truth is that all of mankind became impoverished and enslaved. Because we disobeyed the Righteous God, we became slaves to sin, and came under the power of the Evil One. We became servants to the Kingdom of Darkness. We could not redeem ourselves; we could not come up with the money to ransom ourselves, and be released and restored.

But God saw our dilemma, and the terrible situation we were in, and the suffering we were experiencing as slaves to the Adversary, and He allowed His Son to become One of us; Messiah become a Man, so that He would be able to redeem us from.

He was willing and able to pay the redemption price – His life, His blood, which is the most valuable and precious substance in the universe, far more precious that silver and gold and the finest jewels! When He died, and His blood was shed, He enable us to be redeemed, and set free. For us, Messiah’s death was like a great Year of Jubilee!

Shanat Yovel does not exhaust the number seven’s relationship to God’s calendar. There is a tradition that the seven days of creation are symbolic of seven thousand years of human history. When the Son of God comes, he will not only save Israel and the Jewish people, and the sons and daughters of God, but He will redeem, restore, renew, save Planet Earth, and eventually bring peace, rest, joy and delight to the entire universe as well! I’m looking forward to that greatest of Jubilees, and am planning on being there, and participating in it, because I’ve learned to rest in God and in the Messiah. How about you?